The presidential campaigns of both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are focusing substantial energy on Jewish voters who are closely watching Israel and Gaza, as well as rising antisemitism in the United States. Haaretz Washington correspondent Ben Samuels joined Haaretz Podcast for a special episode devoted to answering questions from Haaretz subscribers. Samuels describes how campaigns have been targeting the American Jewish community – both because they reflect an outsized proportion of significant donations to campaigns on both sides, but also because they can tip the balance in key states. In the third installment of this series, in which Haaretz journalists address the issues on the minds of their readers, Samuels said that "In swing states, Jewish voters really turn out in a way that isn't necessarily consistent with the size of the population, So you've seen both Jewish political organizations on both sides of the aisle and the Harris and Trump campaigns really try to focus on the Jewish vote as the election comes closer." What happens in the war between now and November 5th could be a game-changer "if it has an effect on the U.S. economy, or if U.S. troops get embroiled in the fighting," he said. While the polls so far have demonstrated that Jewish voters are consistently committed to voting Democrat in their traditional overwhelming majority, Jewish Republican leaders reject these findings and are promoting a different narrative. "They're saying that Jewish Americans have really been alienated and disillusioned by the Democratic Party, both in terms of the White House's approach to the aftermath of October 7, the failure to combat rising antisemitism and supposed enablement of antisemitic protests on college campuses," said Samuels. "Jewish Republicans are really trying to set the tone" and prepare the ground for an unprecedented shift away from Democrats. But despite this wishful thinking, Samuels said, it remains true that more than 70 percent of Jewish Americans "not only do not like Donald Trump, but" also find that "everything he says traffics in dual loyalty tropes and either flirts with antisemitism or is allegedly openly antisemitic."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the relentless swirl of war and politics over the past year, the inhabitants of Gaza have often been treated more as pawns than as human beings by political and military leaders, activists, media and even those who claim to be their advocates and allies. "People outside of Gaza sometimes forget that their lives are actual lives," Haaretz correspondent Nagham Zbeedat said on the Haaretz Podcast. The result – as with the circulation of conspiracy theories regarding the campaign to administer polio vaccines that is currently underway – can be dangerous. Zbeedat closely follows and reports on developments in Gaza, including a video casting doubt on the World Health Organization's vaccination effort posted by Gazan social media activist Bisan Owda. In it, Owda questions whether Gazans should allow their children to be injected with material permitted by Israeli authorities and questions the motive behind Israel's seemingly humanitarian gesture. "Palestinians in Gaza actually asked her to remove the video, to delete it, and even to publicly apologize for it," Zbeedat said, while outside Gaza Owda "was being praised, supported and even more [speculation and] theories were introduced in the comment section" under her video. In view of this phenomenon, Zbeedat believes that her own reporting on all aspects of life inside Gaza – from creative cooking using ingredients found in aid packages to water storage to the struggle of Gazan women to obtain menstrual products – emphasizes that "these people had normal lives and should have a normal life, but they are not given that opportunity." Zbeedat also discussed life in Israel at the moment for Israeli Palestinians, from being "hunted" by Israeli authorities when their social media posts are too explicitly supportive of their Gazan friends and relatives, to discomfort around allying with Jewish Israelis. "Just yesterday, I saw a post about an image from one of the demonstrations: "Bring them back and then return," referring to bringing back the Israeli hostages and then re-settling Gaza. "How can we expect Palestinians in Israel to join people who are asking for the hostages back, but also for the destruction of Gaza?"See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "ever had a moral compass, he lost it long ago," said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of Israeli hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen on the Haaretz Podcast. The six hostages brutally murdered by Hamas after surviving eleven months of captivity "should not have been allowed to die" by their country's leadership, he added. "My heart breaks for their families," said Dekel-Chen, describing the news as "part of the living nightmare we've been in since October 7." The government's "abominable handling" of the hostage crisis, he continued, "has taken Israeli society to a place that it's never been, and the only hope for recovery is if the prime minister is able to grow a moral backbone strong enough to bear the weight of his own coalition partners." The fact that U.S. President Joe Biden offered his condolences to the families before Netanyahu "should demonstrate not just to all Israelis, but sadly to Jews in the diaspora as well, that our government and our prime minister are in a state of utter moral corruption." Also on the podcast, Haaretz senior defense analyst Amos Harel discussed how the killings of the hostages has made it clear to the Israeli public that Netanyahu's "cliche about military pressure being the only way to move and to allow hostages to be freed is wrong. It may have been the case in the beginning that there was some leeway that we could push through military pressure. But now Hamas knows exactly what's happening, and has decided to kill hostages rather than to allow them to be freed by Israeli soldiers. "The outcome is clear to everybody: If in these operations, especially tunnels, we lose the element of surprise, there's a good chance more hostages will die under similar circumstances." Netanyahu's response to the massive public outcry Sunday has brought Harel to the conclusion that the leader, who usually appears to feel in control, is now in a "tight spot." While Harel remains pessimistic that Netanyahu has been shaken enough to change his policies, "I think that for the first time in months, he's really fearing the outcome of the public outcry."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Democrats or Republicans who believe that a Kamala Harris presidency will shift her party's Israel policy to a place favorable to its pro-Palestinian progressive wing found little evidence to back their theory at last week's Democratic National Convention, Haaretz Washington correspondent Ben Samuels told the Haaretz Podcast this week. From the warm reception given to the parents of an Israeli hostage who were featured speakers to the sympathetic but firm negotiations with the demands of members of the party's progressive wing who unsuccessfully pushed for a Palestinian-American pro-Palestinian speaker at the DNC, there was no daylight between her stance and Biden's backing of Israel.  While Harris was basking in the spotlight of the convention, Samuels noted, Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken was busy in the Middle East working intensely towards a Gaza cease-fire deal that would return Israeli hostages and contain the hostilities between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran. He succeeded in the latter and not in the former – much to the disappointment of the American-Israeli hostage families who were present at the DNC. "They are pissed. I just cannot overstate enough just how angry and disappointed they are in the reaction that has been coming from the Israeli government and right-wing cabinet ministers who don't prioritize the release of their loved ones," added Samuels. After attending both party conventions, Samuels believes that, short of triggering a large-scale regional war that would involve the United States, "it's very unlikely that Israel will move the needle in terms of who will be the next president." That doesn't mean Netanyahu won't use elections season to his advantage. "The presidential election creates just one other sort of channel where he can feed his chaos through," Samuels concludes, "where he can play the candidates off each other, and use this to manipulate the Israeli public into fearing what stands on the other side of his Premiership."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been enjoying a "dramatic but quite consistent recovery" in the polls in past months, after the failures of October 7 sent his popularity plummeting to unprecedented lows, according to public opinion expert and Haaretz columnist Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin. On this week's Haaretz Podcast, Scheindlin analyzes what may be Netanyahu's slow but steady political comeback despite the fact that the war has continued while a deal to return the country's remaining hostages still has not actualized. She says recent escalations with Iran, particularly the daring assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which Israel has not claimed responsibility for, have restored some of the public's faith in his leadership. Also on the podcast, Haaretz cyber and disinformation reporter Omer Benjakob reviews the "dangerous" breaches of cybersecurity within the Israeli military and how the same Iranian military units devoted to hacking in order to harm Israel are now setting their sights on the U.S. presidential elections. With an "endless stream" of Iranian hacks of sensitive information from its top-secret bases and tracking of soldiers through their smartwatches, the country's most dangerous enemy is collecting and publishing dossiers he describes as a "very dangerous cyber nightmare" that should be feared and fought against as vigorously as missiles, rockets and drones. It is already clear that during the U.S. election campaign, Benjakob says, Iran is doing its best to "foment tensions" around what has already proved to be a dividing issue and the Israel-Hamas conflict "is being amplified at a level that is unprecedented."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Renewed US efforts to reach a hostage deal represent "a last ditch attempt" by the Biden White House for a diplomatic win that could stave off a major Middle East conflagration ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Amos Harel, Haaretz senior military and security analyst said on the Haaretz Podcast, ahead of American-led negotiations set to take place at a summit in Doha, Qatar. The efforts are taking place as Israel faces a "dangerous" and "desperate" situation as it remains prepared for a serious attack, Harel assessed and "the efforts made by the Americans right now show us how seriously they've been taking this threat of regional escalation." Speaking to Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Harel pointed to mixed signals from the Israeli side as to whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is, on any level, interested in making a deal that would return the remaining living hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza. Also on the podcast, Haaretz sportswriter Ido Rakovsky discusses the more heartening and cheerful development of the past weeks - the unprecedented successes of Israel's Olympic athletes in the Paris summer games and the "roller coaster of emotions" as they competed in wartime under tight security. "It's a historic moment," declared Rakovsky, noting that Israel has only won 13 Olympic medals in the first 78 years of its existence "and suddenly, in Paris, we finish with seven medals," after even optimistic assessments predicted winning four or five.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over the course of two days last week, two major assassinations shook the Middle East. The first was of senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, for which the Israeli military took credit, in Beirut. The second was a much more daring operation – the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, right under the nose of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran and other sources have blamed Israel for the strike, and are vowing retaliation – and Israel is gearing up for an attack. For the Haaretz Podcast, correspondent Linda Dayan spoke to Dr. Raz Zimmt, a senior researcher and expert on Iran from the Institute of National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University about this threat. After April's Iranian attack on Israel, Zimmt explained, "Iran has come up with this so-called 'new equation,' according to which every Israeli attack on Iranian interests – personalities or facilities, either inside Iran or outside Iran – would be considered a major blow, which deserves a direct attack by Iran." Compared to previous incidents, "Iran and Hezbollah are more willing today to take the risk of escalation," Zimmt said, "even if it means dragging themselves into a full-scale confrontation."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was a scene of "complete chaos" in the town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights following the devastating Hezbollah strike that killed 12 Druze children playing soccer on Saturday, Haaretz correspondent Sheren Falah Saab, who was at the scene just an hour after the attack, recounted emotionally on Haaretz Podcast. "There were ambulances everywhere and hundreds of people surrounding the wounded children and the bodies of the children," said Falah Saab, who is a member of the Druze community, and has spent the days since the tragedy in the hospital at the bedside of her own relatives wounded in most deadly attack on civilians in Israeli territory since October 7. Falah Saab recalled that "one of most painful sights was the blood-stained bicycles of the children" who were playing on the soccer field and who had no time to run for safety when the siren sounded. The disaster struck a community already hit hard by the Gaza war, she noted. Ten Druze soldiers have been killed in fighting since the start of the war in Gaza. There has also been damage to agriculture and property. But the greatest economic blow is the near-cessation of tourism by both Israelis and foreign visitors in northern Israel, on which much of the Druze population relies to make a living. In the midst of calls for massive retaliation by Israeli leaders, including some Druze, Falah Saab maintained that a majority of Druze "say they don't want war, and they don't want this tragedy to cause more tragedy and more killing of children." Also on the podcast, Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America discusses the excitement among Jewish Democrats about the candidacy of Kamala Harris for president, following President Joe Biden's decision to bow out of the race. Soifer said that there will "continue to be no daylight" between the policies of Harris and Biden regarding Israel and the Gaza war. "She came into this White House with a deep commitment to Israel and in this White House she has been in lockstep with the president on every key issue related to Israel in the lead up to – and now in the aftermath of – the horrific attacks of October 7," Soifer said, dismissing the "vitriol, hate and lies" of GOP nominee Donald Trump who recently charged Democrats with "hating Israel." Given that three-quarters of US Jews vote for the Democrats, she said, Trump is essentially saying that nearly all of them "are uninformed and disloyal, that we hate Israel, that we hate our religion." His charge that "Kamala Harris doesn't stand with Israel is patently false and yet another iteration of his toxic vitriol, and it's targeting Jewish voters. We should call it out for what it is. It is hate, and we reject it." According to Soifer, the Jewish vote will be unusually significant in this election, given the presence of Jewish population in key battleground states, in which Harris and GOP nominee Donald Trump are deadlocked. "This election is going to be close, just like the last one was, and it will be decided by probably about 6 percent of voters in six states: Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. We're not talking about a lot of voters who are going to decide the outcome of this election, which is why the Jewish vote is so important."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's a time of goodbyes: As Joe Biden says goodbye to the U.S. presidency, Netanyahu said goodbye to Israel while the Gaza war is raging, while hostages are both suffering and dying, so that he could speak to the U.S. Congress and hold a few high-level meetings. It may not have been ideal timing, but Netanyahu got what he wanted: too many standing ovations to count. Did Israelis get anything out of the speech? Did Netanyahu lay out a vision for the future or a path to get there? One (or two) might even ask: What was Netanyahu even thinking? In a final revival-farewell, Election Overdose podcast hosts Anshel Pfeffer and Dahlia Scheindlin do their utmost to answer it in a special episode of the Haaretz Podcast. Come for the banter, stay for the breakdown. And there's one more farewell at the end of it all.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Joe Biden's stunning decision to step aside and forgo a second term, throwing his support behind the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris is unlikely to dramatically change U.S. policy towards Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza, according to former diplomat and senior Haaretz columnist Alon Pinkas, who reacted to the bombshell news from Washington on the Haaretz Podcast this week. Biden is planning to remain president until his successor takes office in January 2025, so presumably till then, says Pinkas, all policy regarding Israel and the war - in Gaza and beyond - will be coordinated "vis a vis Joe Biden, not Kamala Harris. In fact, Harris is probably not going to deal with foreign policy because she will be preoccupied and very hectically busy running for president in Michigan and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and other places. And so she's not going to want to deal with foreign policy, certainly not thorny issues like the Middle East." To U.S. supporters of Israel - and Israelis - whose concerns about Harris might lead them to consider backing Republican nominee Donald Trump, Pinkas warns against what he views as "plain idiocy." Pinkas assesses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to Washington this week as "a Seinfeld visit about nothing that wasn't meant to be about anything except a vanity tour that Mr. Netanyahu thought he would sell to his electoral base." With war raging in Israel and hostages in Gaza, Pinkas calls the decision to travel to Washington "recklessness of the highest order." Also on the podcast, family members of hostages, who traveled to Washington, explain why they felt the need to make their voices heard during Netanyahu's visit, and pressure U.S. leaders to push Netanyahu in the direction of a deal that would end the war and free their loved ones from Hamas captivity. "We're here send a message that (Netanyahu) cannot just go to America and get a standing ovation in Congress as if he won this war and freed the hostages," says Zahiro Shachar Mor, the nephew of 79-year-old hostage Avraham Mundar. "We are here to show the world that… the voice of Netanyahu is not the voice of Israel."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.